Victor Gollancz Ltd.
}} , displaying the distinctive yellow dust jacket style.]] '''Victor Gollancz Ltd' was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century. It was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz (1893–1967) and specialised in the publication of high quality literature, nonfiction and popular fiction, including science fiction. Upon Gollancz's death in 1967, ownership passed to his daughter, Livia, who sold it to Houghton Mifflin in 1989. Three years later, in October 1992, Houghton Mifflin sold Gollancz to the publishing house Cassell & Co. In December 1998 the Orion Publishing Group acquired Cassell & Co and turned Gollancz into its science fiction/fantasy imprint. Origins as a political house Gollancz was left-inclined in politics and a supporter of socialist movements. This is reflected in some of the books he published. Victor Gollancz commissioned George Orwell to write about the urban working class in the North of England; the result was The Road to Wigan Pier. His break with Orwell came when he declined to publish Orwell's account of the Spanish Civil War Homage to Catalonia, the pair having drifted apart on political grounds. He did publish The Red Army Moves by Geoffrey Cox on the Winter War which was critical of the Soviet attack on Finland, but also foresaw that the Red Army would defeat the Germans. He also published works by German exiles, such as Hilde Meisel. Gollancz was the original publisher of a number of famous authors and their books including: *George Orwell with Down and Out in Paris and London in 1933 *Alfred Ayer with Language, Truth and Logic in 1936 *A. J. Cronin with The Citadel in 1937 *Daphne du Maurier with Rebecca in 1938 *Kingsley Amis with Lucky Jim in 1953 *Colin Wilson with The Outsider in 1956 *E. P. Thompson with The Making of the English Working Class in 1963 *Anthony Price with The Labyrinth Makers in 1971. Many of Gollancz's books were published in one of their familiar house dust jackets, of which the most famous was bright yellow, with the title and author rendered in a vibrant, bold typography. Transition to science fiction and fantasy genres In 1998, Gollancz was acquired by Orion Publishing Group and turned into science fiction and fantasy imprint, Gollancz Science Fiction. Gollancz took over the SF Masterworks series from Orion sister-imprint Millenium. Gollancz has published award-winning and award-nominated books by, amongst others: : * Joe Abercrombie * J.G. Ballard (later works) * Stephen Baxter * Greg Bear * Jonathan Carroll * Mark Chadbourn * Arthur C. Clarke * Michael Coney * Robert Cormier * Peter Delacorte * Thomas Disch * Stephen R. Donaldson * Christopher Evans * Jaine Fenn * Mary Gentle * William Gibson * Jon Grimwood * Michael Harrison * Joe Hill * Robert Holdstock * Gwyneth Jones * Graham Joyce * Roger Levy * James Lovegrove * Scott Lynch * Paul McAuley * Ian McDonald * George R. R. Martin * Richard Morgan * Terry Pratchett * Christopher Priest * Robert V.S. Redick * Alastair Reynolds * Keith Roberts * Adam Roberts * Geoff Ryman * Robert J. Sawyer * Robert Shaw * Dan Simmons * Alison Sinclair * John Sladek * Bruce Sterling * Ian Watson * Gene Wolfe Novels published by Gollancz have been nominated for 134 science fiction and fantasy awards, and have won 28 of them . Expansion into manga In 2005 Gollancz set up a manga publishing arm, Gollancz Manga, which published UK editions of various Viz Media properties. Gollancz no longer publish manga and Viz Media have re-released all of their series. The following titles have been published: SF Gateway In 2011, Gollancz launched the SF Gateway website, which republishes out-of-print science fiction books as e-books. It aims to make 5,000 or more books available by 2014 and is to be integrated with the online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. See also *Left Book Club *Common Sense (series) References * Edwards, Ruth Dudley. Victor Gollancz: A Biography. London: V. Gollancz, 1987. ISBN 0-575-03175-1. * Hodges, Sheila. Gollancz: The Story of a Publishing House, 1928–1978. London: V. Gollancz, 1978. ISBN 0-575-02447-X. Notes # # External links * *[http://www.sfgateway.com/ SF Gateway] *Catalogue of the Victor Gollancz Ltd archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Category:Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Category:Publishing companies established in 1927 Category:George Orwell Category:Science fiction publishers Category:Victor Gollancz Ltd books